Six former HS football players claim coach’s daughter raped them, sue her and CA school district

A California school district has placed their athletic trainer on administrative leave after six former high school football players filed suit alleging she had raped them and the district knew, with some coaches even referring to the sexual abuse as “Tiffany’s special treatment.”

(Video: CBS)

On Jan. 1, 2020, California’s Assembly Bill 218 went into effect in part extending the statute of limitations for reporting childhood sexual assault up to age 40. Under the new law, six former football players from Colton High School have filed suit against Colton Joint Unified School District (CJUSD) and their former athletic trainer Tiffany Gordon in San Bernardino County alleging from between 2000 and 2007, they were routinely sexually abused by her and the crimes had never been reported.

Gordon, according to the Los Angeles Times, is the daughter of the late Harold Strauss who was head coach and athletic director at the time the rapes were said to have happened. As the suit alleged, the six men identified as John Doe 7042-7047 stated that throughout their playing careers and while still minors, Gordon engaged in sexual abuse on and off campus and while parents and staff knew, the district failed to report and coaches allegedly referred to the reported rapes as “Tiffany’s special treatment.”

“Despite rampant rumors surrounding Gordon’s misconduct, CJUSD knowingly, intentionally, willfully, deliberately, negligently, and/or recklessly allowed Gordon to continue abusing Colton High School’s varsity football players, including plaintiffs,” the suit read in part. “In doing so, defendants fostered a pervasive and hostile environment that utterly disregarded the rights and safety of minor athletes who were entrusted to CJUSD.”

“It took place basically everywhere within Colton High School,” the plaintiffs’ attorney Brian Williams told CBS News. “That would include the locker room for the varsity football players, training rooms, weight rooms, classrooms, bathrooms, in vans to football-related events and at a few homes.”

(Image: CBS Los Angeles screengrab)

One incident reportedly even took place at the home of Strauss when the players were having a team dinner and Gordon allegedly took a player aside to engage in a sex act. At another time, Strauss was said to have walked in on Gordon with John Doe 7046 and demanded to know why the lights were off, but the matter was readily dismissed when she allegedly said they were “just closing up and leaving.”

“They really could’ve stopped it at any time,” John Doe 7044 told the Times. “Everybody knew from when I stepped foot on Colton High that it was a rumor, so at the very least, they could’ve seen what this rumor was about. At no point did they ever step in to stop it.”

He also alleged that during his senior year, he had confronted Gordon by text about the rumors, and in response, she was said to have sent him nude photographs and asked for photos of his genitals. John Doe 7044 said that she sexually assaulted him the next day in the locker room and it continued until he stopped coming in contact with her.

“I think the fact that we were a bunch of poor kids, nobody had the thought to protect us outside the football field,” the plaintiff added, suggesting Gordon picked her alleged victims based on their need for rides home, lacking money to buy food.

In response to the suit, CJUSD issued a statement that read: “Although the current administrative team members were not in leadership roles with the district 20 years ago, the district leadership team is extremely concerned about the allegations being made. Our commitment is always to the safety and well-being of our students, families and staff, and we will work with local law enforcement to protect our community and lend our support to any victims in this case.”

Meanwhile, Gordon’s attorney Paul Wallin told the Times, “Our client has no criminal record of any nature and has been athletic director involved with students for over two decades with no allegations of wrongdoing ever been brought in all that time by any student.”

That fact only further heightened the import of the extended statute of limitations of which Williams said, “In passing AB 218, California lawmakers recognized that it often takes years, or even decades, for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to come forward. This important law gives survivors of sexual abuse an opportunity to be heard and a chance to heal.”

The alleged victims made clear the assault “significantly affected and shaped the students’ perceptions of intimacy, relationships and responsibilities at a young and impressionable age,” and John Doe 7046 added, “I felt like we couldn’t say anything. That our words wouldn’t have matter. When I got older, I didn’t many my kid or anyone else’s kid to feel like how we felt–like we didn’t have a voice.”

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